The 2nd year has started!!!

Yesterday was the first day of school. I ran into many classmates. Everyone looked exhausted after the summer long internship. I had Finance II and sat in for International Finance. The hours are from 6pm to 10pm for these two classes. I like International Finance which covers the history of the formation of post WWII global finance system. It sucks that the class is from 8pm to 10pm. And the next day I have class from 10am til 8pm.

Back to Cleveland

I'm back to Cleveland. I landed on Tuesday. I sucks without a car. I had to take the RTA which is not bad at all.

Cleveland is in the 90's. It was sweltering hot on the day I landed. My room isn't quite ready yet, so my landlord put me up in another room.

Yesterday I finished moving my belongings to the basement in the new house.

I am looking forward to finishing my MBA degree by December.

More to come. Gotta go now. I need to update my resume.

To continue with my internship....

The very first day I felt like I was dropped behind the enemy line. My direct reports and I had meeting with corporate executives to discuss sponsorships. We also had three kick-offs last weeks in three different cities. Since the economy is down, we needed to work extra hard to convince the corporations not only to join, but exceed their previous goals. It's no easy task. Sometimes it took a bit of arm-twisting and coaxing.

Fundraising is fun. I love to interact with different people and tell them stories to convince them to join the StepOut in October. Several people that I talked to initially didn't want to join, but I convinced them in the last minute.

It's nice to see your efforts paid off.

My internship

Since having moved to South Florida area, I've been busy with my internship. So far I've not talked about it yet. Here I'm giving you a low down.

I am working in a local chapter of American Diabetes Association. The priority is to raise money for the StepOut walks in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in October. You might think there is plenty of time until the walks. No, two and a half months are not a lot of time in the fundraising world. They are barely enough.

The very first day I was assigned to contact Walmart to follow up on our grant requests. I needed to make sure the applications we submitted were being processed and followed through. Walmart requires that grant applicants submit one application to each store. We know that the economy is still down and the number of applicants has gone up. However, we managed to secure a 50% approval.

Not bad to start my first day at all. It was full of excitement.

Guest Speaker Events

I want to invite guest speakers to talk in the marketing club guest speaker events. Anyone volunteer? I will pay you a night of hotel and two nice meals, plus the plane ticket to fly you in from out of town.

Give it a thought.

I'm back online

I've been incognito on this blog for sometime cuz Julia and I were busy moving to South Florida. We are settling down. Today we've finished setting up the living room.

South Florida is hot and humid. Fortunately the coast brings breeze in the evening. It's nice to take a walk at night by the coast. When we first got here, we spent a week in the hotel because our furniture was in transit. Everyday we went to the beach. The water is blue and clear. The beaches here are much nicer than those on the other coast. You can actually dip yourself in it without freezing you ass off.

I started my internship on the 6th. The first day was already like a battle. I felt like I was dropped behind the enemy line. The fundraising campaign had been ramped up the week before I started. My first big assignment is prepare few presentations for the meeting next week. My direct report is very energetic and my co-workers are very helpful and easy-going. I wish we had few more hands to help us.

The Confederation Cup title was within grasp for the US until the second half when Brazil rallied up and scored three goals. It looked as if Team USA were about to stage another upset and show the world that US soccer had finally arrived. US led Brazil 2-0 in the first half and the team and its supporters broke into euphoria. However, the joy was premature. The Brazilians made sure the Americans knew who the champions are.

Another disappointment for the US. I hope US didn't underestimate their opponents just because the Brazilians fell behind 0-2 in the first half. Like Spain's captain Puyol said "It won't happen again." after Spain lost to the US 0-2 in the semifinal. I'm sure powerhouses like Italy, Spain and Brazil played only half-ass in this tournament. There are lots of works for us to do in the next 12 months before the World Cup begins in June 2010. We have made a good run in the Confederation Cup, but we should look at previous tournaments. In 2001, Japan made it to the final and only lost to the champion France 0-1 in the final. However, the Japanese didn't make it through the second round and got eliminated by Turkey in the World Cup 2002.

I'm sure the powerhouses will dominate in South Africa. If Team USA wants to surprise the world, they need to get their act together and make a lot of improvements.